Long time, no post

It's been a while since I posted, and that's been because there just hasn't been much activity going on. I continue to work on finishing the windows and trim (we're using shellac), and that is an unbelievably slow job. They are really turning out beautifully though. I can only imagine it would cost a fortune to have them done professionally - it's all labor. It takes me roughly 5 1/2 hours to do one coat, which is sanding the prior coat with steel wool, buffing anything that has had three coats with old denim, blowing all the sanding debris away with an air compressor, taping anything new that needs to be taped, applying the shellac, and making notes on the progress of each window. Each window has to be done in 4 or more sections, and each section needs three coats plus a final buffing. It's not hard to do - the sections I've completed are beautiful to look at and they feel nice too. It is really tedious and slow though.

One of the main sticking points at this time is the kitchen countertop. We were planning on having concrete done by our contractor, but when we finally got a price it was just more than we wanted to spend. We've been frantically searching for options. You wouldn't believe how expensive anything but laminate is. We've finally arrived at what I think our final answer will be. We found a website for DIY (do it yourself) concrete countertops at www.concreteechange.com. One of the biggest challenges of DIY projects is finding the materials - i.e. where to find them and which brand to buy. This website has everything a DIY'er needs and is geared toward them. The designer who owns the site is very enthusiastic about DIY projects and has created a "foolproof" mix for the concrete. I'm excited to try it, and it will be fun to tackle this project together. C has become quite enthusiastic about DIY projects so that has been fun too.

I am having some drama with my building permit though. I need to have an inspection by Nov 30 to keep it active, and it is going to be a real stretch to get ready for one by then, namely because of the countertops. We are at a stage where we only need final inspections, and the countertop has to be in for all of them. I hope I can make something work by then.

I got the first piece of plywood in the master bedroom. There were linoleum tiles in here that contained asbestos which we had professionally removed. The crew took up everything down to the subfloor, so this area of the floor is lower than the rest of the house which has hardwood flooring over the subfloor. In order to make the floor level, we are laying plywood in here that is equal in thickness to the existing hardwood floor. This way, we can lay our new flooring over all of it with no demolition. We explored restoring the hardwood floor, but it is just too beat up to make it worth it.

Here is the first piece of plywood: